I remember driving through downtown LA in 1958.
It was no better then than it is now. Less Hispanics, but just as crawling with criminality and filth as it is now.
My Dad took my brother and I to ride on the streetcars in L.A. on the last day that they were scheduled to run. It was 1963 and we were just kids, I was 13 and my brother was 11. After parking our car, I remember watching two cops throw a guy to the ground on the sidewalk in front of us and point a gun to his head before handcuffing him. Never wanted to go back to downtown L.A. after that.